'Gecekondu': There is a vil lage over there...

Cihangir Istek

(Originally published in Japanese as “Gecekondu, Ware-ware no Mura” in Toruko-Islam Toshi no Kuukan Bunka

- Space Culture of Turkish-Islamic City, edited by Asami Y., Yamakawa Shoten, Tokyo, pp. 52-65, 2003)

There is a village over there,

That is our village.

Even if we have never been there,

Nor if we have seen it,

That is our village...

--Ahmed Kutsi Tecer (1901-1967)

ground: ad-hoc urbanisation

Cities of Turkey today are neither like their Western counterparts, nor are they exactly like

the ones in the Islamic world. They are not anymore similar to the traditional Turkish cities

either. They consist of a lot of fragments, yet none of these fragments can be defined by

any single overall characteristics. Such nature persists through a variety of built-scales in

Turkey, whether it is as small as a house or as large as a town.

The shelter structures called 'gecekondu' (up-overnight), the theme of this essay, are houses

built in one night. The builders of these homes took advantage of a Turkish law (The Act

6188: 'On the Incitements to Build and the Buildings without Permission', 1953) that

allowed those of whom could build quickly enough (in one night) to remain. If, by sunrise,

the walls and roof enclosed a shelter that could keep bedding dry, and if water for tea was

boiling, the Turkish law gave rights to the quick builders... In terms of conventional urban

planning, all of these already sound incredible, but the 'gecekondu' houses and their

growing neighbourhoods in the cities are among the key phenomena shedding lights upon

the ad-hoc urbanisation processes in Turkey and how recently its cities have been shaped.

(Picture 1)

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migrations

Like most industrialising countries and those already industrialised ones in the 19th

century, Turkey has also been, and still, is experiencing the phenomenon called migration

from the countryside to its urban areas. When a major rise in migrations began in the 1950s,

only the 85% of the whole population were living in the countryside and the 15% in the

cities. At the same period, the liberal economy that gained momentum with the political

changes of the 1950s, as well as increasing industrial activity within the cities, filled the

urban areas with factories. Many thousands of people from the countryside -some with their

families, some others with their countrymen- sold their farms and set on the road in order to

start their new lives in the big cities: Many of them found jobs as workers in the factories,

but some on the construction sites...

(Picture 2 and 3)

Among the middle and upper urban classes, these events were also coupled with the rise of

spreading life style in apartment housings. The apartment housings -which was an already

imported building-type from Europe during the last periods of the Ottoman Empire as a

social status symbol belonging more to the higher bourgeois classes- caused the destruction

of many detached traditional Turkish houses and replaced them with those tall housing

blocks called 'apartman' with many flats. In their constructions, there was an urgent need

for workers. After the 'apartmans' were completed, the demand for doormen (named 'kapici'

in Turkish, who maintain the daily necessities of the residents: such as buying the bread,

the newspaper, and cleaning of the building) called for the migrants on duty. Thus, they

gradually filled the big cities and started living in their self-built and rudimentary

'gecekondu' houses.

(Picture 4)

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sharp fluctuations in the population

As the1990s arrived, the number of urban people reached 60% of the entire population,

whereas the 40% were still farmers living in the countryside. However, what is recently

observed is that Turkey is transforming from a country with 30 millions people (out of the

total population of 60 millions) fed by agriculture to another with 67,5 millions people (out

of the total projected population of 90 millions in the 2020s) living in the cities and 22,5

millions in the countryside. This means that, by the 2020s, the country's urban population

will have been doubled within a period of single generation (all statistical figures are taken

from the State Statistics Institute).

(Picture 5)

Today, in Istanbul -the largest and the most migrated metropolis of Turkey- neither its

municipality borders, nor its population are agreed upon. However, the population of this

city has always been determined by the influxes from the outside. In Byzantium, in

Constantinople, as well as in Istanbul, from many different places the dwellers flooded to

this city. There is, in fact, a very few people living in Istanbul, whose ancestors were born

as real Istanbulians more than three generations. Nonetheless, throughout the history that is

always the migrant populations who have been taken responsible for keeping this historical

metropolis breathless and accused of being ignorant of the modern ways of urban living.

During the last fifty years, the number of people living in Istanbul has already increased by

ten times, and is still expected to reach 20 millions in the 2020s. This fact has already

proved that a number of over-simplistic suggestions -which was often made upon the

metropolis' population problems- such as 'special visas' or 'restrictions' on the recent

migrants were false. Perhaps, in the future, these may be only recalled as one of those old

Istanbulian tales.

(Picture 6)

In attracting migrants, Istanbul is not the only city anymore. Other large cities such as

Ankara, Izmir, Adana, and Bursa with a population more than a million follow its trend.

Some seafront cities such as Antalya with a very high potential in tourism industry, or cities

like Diyarbakir holding a very dense migrant populations of Kurdish origins also record

much greater ratios of population growth than Istanbul.

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a little urban land, please...

Within the last twenty years or so, the economic growth in Turkey has been possible

despite the 70-80% annual inflation. During this period, the land -especially those livable

land by the peripheries of cities (mostly owned by the state), where the urbanisation is

easily accelerated- has become more or less the single socio-economic target for savings,

for speculations and for those who desire to own urban homes. Therefore, building own

houses -even as shabby and rudimentary as 'gecekondu' structures- have been forgiven by

the city administrators; thus, in the short run it looked as if they have discovered a solution

for the ages-old problem of the city...

(Picture 7)

Today, in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, the making of livable-land has been

realised through very complicated and peculiar ways. These are backed up not only by the

major public need for housing, but also by the speculative interests of businessmen and

politicians. On the other hand, the city administrators, while they are involved in molding

all the parties together in the system, they also gain...

(Picture 8)

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step by step 'gecekondu'

By hiring special estate agents, large firms and businessmen with many politicians on their

sides buy the property rights of the state-owned lands along the peripheries of the cities,

and start developing new neighbourhoods there. The reasons that allow this speculative

move are mainly due to the followings: the border conflicts and the lacks of initiatives to

bring urban services as well as planning decisions in these areas among the municipalities.

Moreover, it is the lack of either making, or maintaining the necessary housing and land

policies throughout Turkey.

(Picture 9)

After these lands are bought well below their current market values, they are parcelled and

sold to the migrants, as if they belonged to village properties. On the other hand, the new

migrant owners of these lands have just been through the first apprenticeship stage in the

city either by having joined their family members or fellow migrants’ -who had preceded

them- or having hired homes in the centrally located traditional neighbourhoods of the city.

The regional origin of the founders or the heads of these new neighbourhoods bring the

migrants from the same region together. Purchasing the properties might well extend to a

period as long as few years. Because, not only the new owners may not afford the necessary

finance, but also in order not to catch the attention of the authorities they do not start the

construction immediately. This is the period mainly the founder manages the things and

maintains the status quo, while protecting the rights of the property owners.

(Picture 10)

Having most of the parcels sold, with the initiatives of the neighbourhood founder, the

constructions begin at a period especially coinciding with the political elections, thus the

reactions of the city administration are assured. The municipality side, on the other hand,

rather than putting an end upon something, which has already began by a large group of

people, they prefer to show either a lack of authority -the act of which allows their

lower-rank officers to benefit from the briberies in return- or indecisive individual

criticisms.

With the completion of the first 'gecekondu' houses (the act is normally illegal, but often

forsaken (?) ...) the initial stage of the squatting process is over. One thing the reader should

bear in mind that this is a never-ending process of building, and such houses are

continuously built and rebuilt accordingly to the legislative framework of the country, or

the changes in the family structures of the resident builders. After this initial stage, the new

neighbourhood immediately starts forming a civic body, and forwards a request for

acceptance as part of a municipality. By the way, for the new neighbourhood, this is the

only chance to get legalised and to benefit from the urban services and infrastructures. If

necessary, the residents either sell their votes, or give away the 25% of the properties they

built upon to the municipality in order to receive electricity, water and gas services for their

community. Finally, they all become the official landowners and granted a building

permission up-to three stories above the ground floor. On the other hand, the municipality

also gains an important portion of lands from this deal, and it is obvious that they will not

use all of them for building infrastructures only...

The whole process itself, besides making the migrant communities urbanised in a very

short period, also provides everybody involved to get the maximum benefit from the estate

markets. The large firms with big capitals step down at the very beginning, but they will

still keep a few nicely located estates here and there. After the legalisation is settled down

and the land prices are in the rising trend, they will sell these properties. As for the

residents of 'gecekondu' communities, at the beginning, they have to be patient with living

in these simple shelter structures, but later, with the legalisation and the benefits from the

building permission they will also gain 'plus-values'.

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to be 'urban', or not to be?…

Several years later, only a few of them increased their living standards and reached at a

social level called ‘kentli' (urban residents) by moving into the apartment blocks in the

wealthier neighbourhoods of the city. This lucky few are already the people who were once

living in the first-generation 'gecekondu' neighbourhoods. As these neighbourhoods are

-now- placed in the middle of the metropolises, some of their residents still continue

gaining 'plus-values' in the property markets.

On the other hand, as migrations continue today, the third and even the fourth generation

'gecekondu' neighbourhoods surround the metropolises. But, far from gaining anything,

their residents live in poverty. They are the poorest in the cities and the people with the

countryside values. Today, such neighbourhoods in Turkey gradually become the

inseparable parts of the big cities. They even play transitional roles for the new migrants in

their integration to the urban life. However, such integrations are not easily achieved, and

many 'gecekondu' areas now economically and socially look like their equivalent towns or

villages in Anatolia.

(Picture 11 and 12)

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realities and dreams…

The streets of the 'gecekondu' neighbourhoods are very narrow indeed, and there coexist

more or less all sorts of buildings and constructions: in wood, in stone, in concrete, in the

traditional Turkish style, yet in many colours and many different materials… The voids are

everywhere: the narrow alleys that connect the rear streets, the gaps between the buildings

and the open-staircases... One should carefully observe them to understand what is

happening inside. The residents are normally very poor, helpless and homeless -they have

surely homes, if one considers the buildings they live are homes... The toys of their children

are the drainage waters gathered in the streets and the used-PET bottles.

(Picture 13 and 14)

Even if you are a simple passer-by strolling around these neighbourhoods, their residents

might suspect that you are somebody from the top of the municipality and make them leave

here! It is like the famous story of a popular Turkish film, which goes that, the big and rich

guy comes to destroy the entire 'gecekondu' neighbourhood, and builds giant apartment

blocks in their place… if by chance, there is a camera in your hand and you are shooting

pictures around, then they might jump into the conclusion that you are the one who will

show them in the TV. To get into your frame, the pretty gipsy girls will start competing

each other with noisy excitement. Who knows, one day they might become famous and

leave here forever. That is the only hope left in their hearts!

(Picture 15)